3-9-11: Know Housing Policy, Know School Policy

Most school reform conversations focus on teachers. But the neighborhoods children live in and the socioeconomic status of their classmates may have a bigger impact on their learning.

Abell Foundation president Robert Embry wrote an op-ed for the Baltimore Sun last month raising the prospect of directing public school funds toward poor families in poor neighborhoods to use as rent certificates to move to more affluent neighborhoods. The op-ed was based in part on Housing Policy is School Policy, a Century Foundation research report showing that poor children in Montgomery County attending low poverty schools do better than poor children at high poverty schools.

Robert Embry tells Sheilah how he believes linking housing policy to school policy could bridge the achievement gap.